Compost Cookies

One of the many things I’ve baked in the past few months and I am only now posting about this.  It is no excuse, but I just started an incredible new job, so that is where I have been spending most of my time, perhaps more on that later, but now, back to the kitchen:

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”…something my mother always tells me and this is perhaps the most perfect cookie recipe to reflect these wise words.  Apparently these cookies are the hot topic on the web because I read about them on blogs everywhere, first from here, to here, then here, and here.  Momofuku milk bar was on my list of bakeries to visit while I was in NYC a couple years ago, but the city is so big and my list was so long that I never got around to going.  It has now been moved to the top of my list for my next visit to the Big Apple.  The compost cookie is the invention of the Momofuku milk bar’s pastry chef Christina Tosi.  This ingenious cookie makes use of really whatever you have lying about, sweet or savory.  Like many home bakers, I always have ingredients left over from different recipes.  A few squares of chocolate here, some potato chips there.  Here is the recipe, as it can be found all over the internet:

I had to make a few changes to the recipe to accommodate my teeny french kitchen.  I do not have a stand mixer, (what I wouldn’t do for a kitchenaid, but there is just simply no place to put it), so I had to use a hand mixer.  I was worried that the texture of the cookies would be affected, but the end result seemed fine to me.

Once you have really creamed the butter and sugar, added in the eggs, mixed some more, then added in the flour; you can then start adding in the sweet and snacks.

For my first batch, I used: dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts, butterscotch chips, dried coconut, cranberries, salted butter caramel, rice krispies, cornflakes, and monster munch (see above photo).

once all ingredients are incorporated, scoop out balls onto a cookie sheet.

Chill the dough balls for at least a few hours for the best results during baking.

the second batch came a few days later when I had eaten all the cookies…I changed the ingredients a little, using potato sticks and corn chips instead of monster munch and leaving out the salted butter caramel, which while it tasted so good, it made the cookies uneven when it melted during baking.  I had a few oreo cookies that I threw in as well.

Overall, this is a great recipe.  I made some for a housewarming party and they were gone within 15 minutes.  No one could really put a finger on the ingredients.  People asked what is in the cookies, i just let them guess.